Episodic Analysis of the Nuclear Activity of Iran in the West Newspapers

One of the language functions is making communication among thoughts and beliefs. This language function is regarded as a part of social and communicative events as writing of editorials. Texts of editorials, not only through a chain of sentences but also through a hierarchical structure are organized.This structure is divided into units, called "episode", which has an integrated nature either structurally or semantically, and its borders are verbally clear. As episodes are assumed as discourse semantic units, we must define them in according to semantic terms such as propositions. The problem and goal of this study is to recognize propositional levels in the west´s editorials texts on Iran´s nuclear activity. On this basis, by using Van Dijk's episodic model (1981) and analytical method, we tried to analyze one sample of Independent editorial about the nuclear activity of Iran, published in Britain, to answer this question; "how we can describe the organizing process of editorials in an integrated model of propositions". This study shows that general macropropositions are manifested in the first thematic sentences and provide a summary of the text, which is America's policy toward the nuclear activity of Iran. Subtheme of the text, which is about the opinions and reactions of powerful governments and also that of Iran toward this policy, is presented in the paragraphs and the general structure of the text, respectively.